man_. He handed it over.

"Do you recognize that photograph as that of anybody you know?" he
asked. "Look at it well and closely."

Mr. Quarterpage put on a special pair of spectacles and studied the
photograph from several points of view.

"No, sir," he said at last with a shake of the head. "I don't recognize
it at all."

"Can't see in it any resemblance to any man you've ever known?" asked
Spargo.

"No, sir, none!" replied Mr. Quarterpage. "None whatever."

"Very well," said Spargo, laying the photograph on the table between
them. "Now, then, I want you to tell me what John Maitland was like
when you knew him. Also, I want you to describe Chamberlayne as he was
when he died, or was supposed to die. You remember them, of course,
quite well?"

Mr. Quarterpage got up and moved to the door.

"I can do better than that," he said. "I can show you photographs of
both men as they were just before Maitland's trial. I have a photograph
of a small group of Market Milcaster notabilities which was taken at a
municipal garden-party; Maitland and Chamberlayne are both in it. It's
been put away in a cabinet in my drawing-room for many a long year, and
I've no doubt it's as fresh as when it was taken."

He left the room and presently returned with a large mounted photograph
which he laid on the table before his visitor.

"There you are, sir," he said. "Quite fresh, you see--it must be
getting on to twenty years since that was taken out of the drawer that
it's been kept in. Now, that's Maitland. And that's Chamberlayne."

Spargo found himself looking at a group of men who stood against an
ivy-covered wall in the stiff attitudes in which photographers arrange
masses of sitters. He fixed his attention on the two figures indicated
by Mr. Quarterpage, and saw two medium-heighted, rather sturdily-built
men about whom there was nothing very specially noticeable.

"Um!" he said, musingly. "Both bearded."

"Yes, they both wore beards--full beards," assented Mr. Quarterpage.
"And you see, they weren't so much alike. But Maitland was a much
darker man than Chamberlayne, and he had brown eyes, while
Chamberlayne's were rather a bright blue."

"The removal of a beard makes a great difference," remarked Spargo. He
looked at the photograph of Maitland in the group, comparing it with
that of Marbury which he had taken from his pocket. "And twenty years
makes a difference, too," he added musingly.

"To some people twenty years make